Re: [microsound] maths science and electronic music

["Mr.D" <craque@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Ah, thanks for the clarification David, I do have something to add 
about interfaces...

> > To what extent are individuals controlled by interfaces and norms 
> > embedded within technologies?

I'm afraid you're right about reverse control, and I see it in the 
community as well. Is it because:

   - people are basically lazy and don't want to think hard about it?
   - people just want to sound like other artists, and commandeer the 
tools?
   - technology has become so pervasive that it's taken for granted?
   - we don't want to work the way we want to because we're afraid to 
work outside the fitted UI, because there's a fear that we'll break the 
computer?

there are probably many more questions like these.

We are constantly affronted by GUIs and mechanisms which help us work, 
I am totally controlled by my interface at work (I am a unix sysadmin). 
But I customize my interface to a high degree, and use open source 
software which makes it easy to do that.

A lot of options don't allow for flexibility and adaptation, and push 
the user into one mode of working and one way of thinking about 
problems. Many musicians build their own sound sources, and computer 
musicians build their own interfaces for sound, but I don't think this 
is widespread. The comments about programs like Live and Reason can be 
pessimistically accurate considering that one reason people buy it is 
because they know so-and-so uses it, and they already want to be 
pigeonholed before they even start up the application.

Companies like Microsoft try and program their user base by first 
creating a paradigm that is easy to work in, and then locking them into 
that by not allowing compatibility or extendibility with other products 
or services. The inbred nature of how M$ products have evolved and 
stifled the way business works is a prime example of the interface 
taking over to become a social virus. Every software company, despite 
good intentions and programming practices, has to make concessions for 
Microsoft products, because the compatibility won't work the other way 
around, and are similarly bound.

matt

On Apr 13, 2005, at 8:13 AM, David Powers wrote:

> Hi Matt,
>
> Good answers, but I think you miss what I was getting at...  I meant to
> pose these questions in collective/cultural terms, not individual ones.
> For example, the Chernobyl accident is a little different than the
> musical accident.  Furthermore, while you as an individual may not
> experience it, I'm sure that computer interfaces do exert a control on
> the general population - I see it at work in the university every day.
> This is not just a mental or individual question, but really has
> political and social implications.
>
> ~David


---------------------------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe, e-mail: microsound-unsubscribe@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
For additional commands, e-mail: microsound-help@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
website: http://www.microsound.org